Alumni Game Company Raises $8M in Mobile Game Venture

It’s an exciting time for mobile game development. Firefly Games, co-founded by SCA alum Justin “KJ” Lin ('08), has raised $8 million to distribute popular Asian mobile games to the US market. It’s a significant achievement for any organization, and remarkable for a company that was only founded one month ago in January 2015.

One of the four planned titles that Firefly Games will release this year is Rising Heroes, a role-playing game (RPG) that combines tactical combat with story-based character upgrades. Players will be able to build unique heroes in defense of their very own kingdom.

A still from Rising Heroes, one of the Firefly Games' titles planned for release in 2015

Because of the innovative designs and proven success of these mobile games in the Asian market, Firefly Games’ investors, including Chinese investment firms Skyocean International Holdings, Ceyuan Ventures, and GuangZhou WinHi, are confident that these titles will translate well to American audiences. With mobile gaming still in its infancy, they even believe these new titles will help revolutionize the $30 billion dollar mobile game market.

Veteran game developerand fellow co-founder of Firefly Games, Michael Zhang, said in a statement, “We plan to bring a revolutionary approach to the way games are released that goes far beyond the standard localization currently seen in the App Stores.” Part of the plan for Firefly Games includes fusing these unique games with proven Western event systems (tournaments) to create the first real AAA-quality titles for the mobile platform.

But for right now, the lean, 30-person, Los Angeles-based start-up will be using their new funding to finance internal game development and acquire more popular titles for release under their flag.